Curefit’s funding frenzy continues, raises $120 Mn in fresh round

Health and fitness startups Curefit makes a perfect case for being subject of great envy. The Bengaluru based startup, which is already amongst the most funded Indian startups, on Monday raised $120 Mn in series C round. This takes Curefit’s total fund raising to nearly $175 Mn. The latest fund raising round was led by IDG Ventures, Accel Partners and Kalaari Capital.

Curefit’s propensity to raise big funding rounds partly reflects the goodwill that Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori enjoy across the investment community. Mr. Bansal single handedly created the much successful online fashion portal Myntra, which was later acquired by Flipakrt. Nagori, on other hand, was former Chief Business Officer of Flipkart and was one of the many brains that transformed Flipkart into a brand name.

Both Bansal and Nagori joined hands in the early 2016 to stare Curefit, an online platform that promotes holistic health and mental fitness amongst cosmopolitan Indians. The Bengaluru headquarter startup works on a omni-channel, since it also operates several fitness centers across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and other cities.

Is Curefit running the race way too fast?

To say that Curefit is taking bull by the horn would not be an overstatement. For a startup that is barely two years old, making as many as 7 acquisitions and signing a Bollywood superstar as a brand ambassador is little uncharacteristic. Although the big funding rounds have given the startup enough cash reserves, several critics are questioning the high cash burn rate.

According to Curefit’s last filing with Register of Companies (ROC), startup posted a net loss of nearly Rs 18 crore & net sales of Rs 3 crore for the year 2016-17. This roughly means that company lost 6 times the money it made in the last financial year.

But Bansal remains unfazed over concerns over high cash burn rate. Speaking to a leading publication earlier this year, former Myntra founder said that Curefit is targeting revenue run rate of $100 million by 2019. This would be substantial increase from the current run rate of $20 Mn.

Indians are certainly becoming more health conscious

There can be little doubt over the fact that today big chunk of Indians living across big & cosmopolitan cites are getting drawn towards healthy lifestyle. Experts cite rise in standard of living and growing exposure about healthy lifestyle as reason for driving city dwellers towards health consciousness. This growth has also been hugely aided by growth in technology and rise in internet penetration.

According to Deloitte India report, India’s health fitness industry was worth $1.1 Bn in 2017 and is expected to surpass this figure by end of 2018.

With urban Indian getting on health mode, several health and fitness startups have emerged over the years to cash in on the growing market. GymPik, Diet Clinic, FitFlea, PlaynLive and LiveHealth are some of the well-known players in the space.